Originally released in 1995 by Jeffrey Lim as freeware with commercial extensions, it was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform.

[1] The first version was released in 1995 and included example songs "Drifting Onwards" and "Blue Flame" composed by Jeffrey Lim and Chris Jarvis respectively.

The software was distributed as freeware, though extra features, such as support for stereo WAV output and a personalized version of the driver for co-editing songs over IPX networks, were provided for a fee.

[citation needed] On February 16, 2014, Jeffrey Lim announced that he would release the complete source code of Impulse Tracker as part of its 20-year anniversary.

NNAs allow the user to customize the subsequent action:[8] Impulse Tracker supports hardware MIDI channels on the Gravis Ultrasound, InterWave and Sound Blaster 32 card families (provided enough RAM is available).

[citation needed] Erez Eizen of Infected Mushroom and Shiva Shidapu composed his first trance music on Impulse Tracker.